Sweaty, Mercy Sweatshirts

One nice thing about being a researcher is that God's given me hours upon hours each week to meditate on sermons and music from great pastors, speakers and artists while I'm on the clock. So this week I was listening to some great audio from the "Marriage and the Mercy of God" conference (audio is in the link).

I am not married, but I think that the teaching was super helpful in thinking about what does it look like to be impacted by the mercy of God to me in all of my everyday relationships. (For which it doesn't matter if you're married or not)

But in Dr. Tripp's message he gave the analogy that we are soaked in God's grace. It's almost like we are soaked to the point of wearing a sweaty, soggy sweatshirt soaked in God's grace and we just need to look around and see how to get other people "wet."

Now apart from the great humor of that image (like me running around my lab here in a sweaty sweatshirt trying to get my coworkers wet), it's a good image. There really is no "trick" to us "doing" mercy to others. God has supremely showered us and shown us mercy in Christ. Being merciful is just showering people with what we've already been showered with.

That's really helpful especially to me as I struggle with how to share the Gospel with my coworkers (and some of us have worked together for a few years now!) I can blame it on the language and cultural barriers, but in the end am I really loving and showing mercy to my coworkers? Would sharing the Gospel with them be more beneficial using mercy shown to them as a starting point?

Just some of my thoughts while I'm on break. I'd also encourage you listening to the messages too (single or married) as the underlying teaching on mercy would edify us all. Plus since I didn't have a transcript and was going off of memory of Dr. Tripp's analogy too I probably butchered it so go and listen to it there for the full analogy!

Grimmaces, Texting, Long Routes....

So a few weeks ago I asked for prayer for the new students arriving at Penn State. Well the Lord is doing a very good work and we can see how He is bringing many to hear his Word. Even those who are self-proclaimed non-Christians!

But one thought that I wanted to share is that, the Good News of Jesus or even being associated with him really is offensive and the stench of death many whom the Lord has not saved.

This was made very real to a few of us when we were at a table in the one lobby here at Penn State asking students if any of them would like to learn more about the Bible or to get involved in a Christian fellowship. Many took long routes around us when they found out what we were about. Others got very visibly engrossed in a text message. And others actually visibly grimaced and/or wrinkled their noses when we asked them unoffensively if that might be something they would be interested in. Paul said "to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life." 2 Cor. 2:16 (ESV)

It was interesting to actually see it, but Paul was right: To those who are dying the life we have in Christ really does reek of death. Death to self, death to pride, death to our sinful idolatry.

Those of us who are believers however were once no different too! The only reason we don't wrinkle our nose and run away from the Lord is because "6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-9 (ESV)

Please continue praying for our outreach on campus!

It's Summer!

Friends,

Well it's summer and that means that freshman are again arriving at Penn State. Please be praying that in this new incoming class the Lord would save many and raise up many to glorify His name. Also you can be praying for our outreach efforts and those of the other Christian ministries at Penn State that believers would meet many skeptics and unbelievers and that the Lord would use these believers as tools to bring many to know Jesus.

Pray for Students!

Friends,

A quick post between classes: DM is having a conference for students coming up this weekend. Many students who are not Christians will get to hear the Gospel very clearly articulated and others will be hearing it to encourage them on to know the Lord more.

Please be praying that God would work in everyone's hearts, especially the students who are coming to learn more about Christianity. Also be praying that students wouldn't just get "Christian Camp/Conference High", but that God would bring them to good local churches back home and that they also get involved on campus with other student believers.

May God do great things for His glory!

God Does the Work

Friends,

I realize that I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus for the past few weeks here. It's been a bit busy, but God's been doing cool things.

I wanted to let you all know about and ask for prayer for is one guy that lives on our floor. Out of the blue one day, he came up to Justin and I in the commons and asked if we were still doing a Bible study in our room and if he could join. We said we'd be glad to have him and he showed up this Thursday with a friend!

So God has now brought a guy to our study who approached US about the study and he brought a friend even! Man God is doing crazy things.

It gets even more amazing when he said that he'd wanted to learn about the Bible for quite a while, but didn't want to study it on his own because he wouldn't have help. So apparently God's been working on him for sometime.

What's more amazing is that when we asked him about going to a DM student conference in a few weeks to do a track about the basics and big questions about Christianity with me he said he'd love to do it!

So God's doing something crazy and please be praying for this student and his friend, that God would continue to be working on his heart to show him his need and how great Jesus is. Also be praying that they'd be desirous to go to this conference with us, where they can be exposed to other godly men and women, get to be our friends more and hear the Gospel clearly articulated in love.

Thank you for your prayers and to God alone be the glory!

Update!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to challenge our core guys tonight to do some more prep for our study next week and hopefully see them want to dive more into the text.

But God's funny and we changed plans.

Tonight we had 3 new guys come to the study effectively doubling the size of the guys not on staff or living in 908 Tener Hall! So in light of that God doubled the number of guys coming we decided to hold off and challenge them next week so that all of the new guys don't get hit with a challenge on their first night.

Please be praying for these new guys that they too would thirst to know Jesus!

Stepping it up!

Tonight you can be praying for the Bible study my roommate Justin and I have on our floor. We've now got a core group of guys that have been consistently attending and we want to encourage them to go even deeper into the text.

It's not a big challenge, just that they would read the text before coming to the study next week and each write one question about the text that they want to discuss as a group. But our prayer is that these guys would just thirst for the Word and to know Jesus through it.

So please be praying for these men that that would thirst and that they would know that they need a great Physician! (That's the passage we're doing tonight!)

The Totally Wrong Team

Sitting in a meeting last night, I was reflecting on the wonder of God's choice. As I looked around I saw broken and weak individuals who I love dearly as my brothers and sisters, but we were in the wrong situation.

We were in a meeting praying to our Lord and strategically looking forward to how we can be more effective in our work for the Lord to reach University Park. However, the more I studied my brothers and sisters and myself, I realized that we are most certainly not the A-Team. We're all weak, we all struggle with emotions, weariness, faithlessness, and yet this is the team that God has called together.

And more so there I was sitting there too and having no clue why God would call me to help lead these leaders. What in the world was God thinking!??!

But then my dear brother reminded us that: "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; god chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chosewhat is low and espised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, SO THAT (emphasis added) no human being might boast in the presence of God." (1 Cor. 27-30, ESV)

Brothers and sisters, we are not God's A-team. We are weak, emotional, frail, but God chose us because that's what we are. And so we can strive boldly for our Lord trusting him for the results, because that's where the results come from in the first place!

Internship Reflection #3: Relationships for His Glory

During that "quiet" period before the onslaught of freshman began we had several sign up tables around the parts of campus that were open to see what upperclassmen might be interested in learning more about Jesus.

At one of these tables we met a young man, who at his first interaction with us appeared very uninterested in discussing the Bible or our group, citing that he didn't believe in a creator of the universe who rules everything, etc. However, as we continued to converse with him he was at least open to coming and visiting our group because we were open to him coming even if he disagreed with us.

And the miracle is that this young man has continued to show up at many of our events and build relationships with all of us. Most notably on one instance he said, unsolicited, to a friend of his outside of the group that all of his friends were in our group. My dear brother and roommate Jason Knox has already blogged more extensively about his interactions with this friend of ours. When asked about what has struck him about what we say about Jesus was that, He will never leave us or abandon us. Oh brothers and sisters that this young man would know Jesus in such a way!

As of today this guy is still not a brother in our Lord, and we've continued to challenge him about why he does not believe. He continues to be very frank about his issues and why he does not believe, continues to show up and continues to be open to our relationships with him. So please be praying for this friend of ours. The Lord's using our relationships with him to get to know him better and know his disagreements, but please be praying that these relationships would also be used for him, a guy who totally thinks that the idea of God or His Son is unbelievable, to know Him, our Lord Christ Jesus!

Outreach Craziness!!

Over the past few weeks we've had sign-up tables all over campus to allow interested students to sign up for listserv emails, get info, etc. and in general allow us to share Christ with them.

Beyond our wildest expectations, 404 students have indicated that they are interested in learning more about Jesus and getting involved in a Bible study. Praise God for what He's doing!

Please also be praying for all of these students, those we already know here on campus, and people we will meet that God will just do amazing things for His name this semester!

Also please be praying that God would send us more laborers in terms of staff and student leaders because we are currently hard pressed to respond to such interest levels. God has been good and is enabling us to reach these students, but we can still use more hands to help us as we labor for Him!

Back From Blogging Break!

The break's over, I'm back from vacation, and safely moved into my new room with it's ninth floor view.

Please be praying for us as we continue reaching out to the campus over the next few weeks and months, especially in our dorms, at sign-up tables and in classes!

(P.S. Reflections posts will continue this week too!)

Internship Reflection #1: Evangelistic Coffee

The first 3 weeks of the internship had the interns serving on campus during Summer Session I. If you've ever been to PSU during Summer Session I, you'll know that this is probably one of the quietest times on campus when class is technically in session. There were only a few hundred students living on campus!

We interns were feeling quite like we were up a creek since with so few students and that it was so hard to find new ones that we began to struggle knowing how else to meet new students.

However one afternoon on one of those early days of the internship I went to a local coffee shop to meet with one of my roommates to take a few moments of downtime and check in to see how each other was doing. I had arrived first and grabbed a mug and took a seat to wait for my roommate to arrive. At one of the tables close to me sat a lady and we began to have some small talk while I was waiting. As the conversation progressed and she realized that I was a Christian she began sharing how she was from China, a visiting scholar and would soon be returning to China in a month. However she said that in the past month she had begun to read and study the Bible with another Christian lady to try to understand Christianity before she returned to China.

At that point my friend arrived and she then asked if we could explain "the whole Bible, even the Old Testament parts." We said that we weren't sure, but that we'd give it a try and then all of a sudden she pulled out a Bible and opened to Matthew and began to ask us questions about passages that she was confused about.

Praise the Lord for humility, because we were able to ask her questions about what she saw in the passage and helped her grasp what was the context and meaning of the different passages. To make things even more amazing her questions were not ones about what is this term or this is wrong why would you believe that, but "Why would Jesus say something like that wouldn't that make him arrogant?"

And brothers and sisters, our God is so good! As we helped her to walk through the different passages it seemed like the Holy Spirit was beginning to teach her in part what was going on in the Bible and more importantly who Jesus was! We were also able to share how we became Christians and the Gospel as well.

She didn't become a Christian there, but she was visibly eating up the Word!

Sadly we were unable to reach her again before she left soon after to return to China, but we have been praying that the Lord continued to use the Bible study that she was already in before she returned to China. Please be praying for this lady who has now returned to China that the Lord will open the eyes of her heart to understand who Jesus is and give her a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone. Or if she has already become a Christian since I met her that He would be growing her mightily and giving her strength and courage to preach Him boldly in China especially now during the Olympics (a difficult time for Chinese Christians).